Friday, August 09, 2019

Climbing Mountains in Street View

The Zugspitze is Germany's highest mountain. The mountain was first climbed way back in 1820. Now you can climb the mountain yourself using Google Maps Street View.

Brothers David and Phil Schmidt spent two weeks hauling panoramic cameras, tripods and GPS devices up the 10,000 foot mountain in order to provide an incredible online Street View tour of the Zugspitze. You can explore the results of their amazing panoramic photography and virtually ascend the mountain yourself on Zugspitze 360°.

Thanks to all the hard work done by David and Phil climbing the Zugspitze virtually is very easy. You can navigate the thousands of Street View images captured of the Zugspitze in a number of different ways. If you are feeling intrepid you can start at the beginning of the climb and use the forward and back arrows in the Street View images to methodically climb the mountain in sequence. As you progress through the stunning panoramic images of the Zugspitze you can also learn more about the mountain from a number of audio guides dotted along the route.

If you are feeling less intrepid and feel the need for a shortcut then you can always use the quick links which are provided to skip forward to different locations on the tour. If you are very impatient, you can just skip straight to the summit to experience the amazing view from the very top of Zugspitze.

You can also explore the Everest region using Google Maps Street View. A few years ago Google teamed up with Apa Sherpa (a Sherpa mountaineer who holds the world record for reaching the summit of Mount Everest 21 times) and the Nepalese nonprofit organization Story Cycle in order to provide panoramic images of the Himalayas.

During a 10-day trek through the Khumbu region with Apa Sherpa Google managed to capture Street Views of mountain trails and a number of Sherpa villages. The best way to explore this Street View imagery is to visit the Khumba map on Google Treks.

The Khumba site on Google Treks includes some lovely hand-drawn maps of the featured villages. Each of the maps include map markers which lead to Street Views captured on Google's 10-day trek. These include Street View imagery of monasteries, temples, trekker's lodges and of course some wonderful scenery of the Himalayas.

The 3,000 foot vertical face of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley is one of rock climbings biggest challenges. It is even more challenging when you are carrying large Street View cameras. But that didn't deter experienced climbers Lynn Hill, Alex Honnold and Tommy Caldwell.

These three climbers dragged Google's Street View cameras all the way to the top of El Capitan, capturing some extraordinary imagery on their journey. The best way to explore this rock-climbing Street View is on this Behind the Scenes special. El Capitan, Yosemite: Behind the Scenes is a great presentation of this extraordinary Street View imagery. As you scroll up the page you can view the locations of the Street View panoramas, superimposed upon the face of El Capitan.

Click on the 'explore' buttons that appear on your screen and you can dive into the interactive imagery captured from the climb. The Street Views themselves contain points of information about the climb and the mountain. They also include sound-clips and video which explain more about El Capitan and its history.